Blake relaxing at the 3 o clock position on grandaddy - resting
and looking at the view. He thankfully got a nest of gear into
the rock at his feet (including some very well improvised and fantastically
crappy horn slinging). I mentioned Blake's retribution in the former image, well,
it came when I followed this pitch. Since there was no gear on the traverse, I was also
looking at a crappy swing on gear that I was worrying about (when I got to the nest I saw that
there was a welder nut placement). So, I started out on the moves and totally froze up
(not enough to retreat, though). After my legs stopped shaking and the
need to vomit subsided, I told Blake that I couldn't follow and was imagining
a way to get me up the face, avoiding the route.
After a moment, and with some encouraging words, Blake helped me back on
the rock, I tried again, and I fell...into the groove! Actually there
was no groove, just me frantically pumping through nastiness.
I made it, though, thanks to Blake. When I topped out (after an incident
with a wasp) I was excited and shaky - the sign of a good route, perhaps?
Looking at this picture and the one proceeding it I see that there is
a possible variation above where we went - the ledge that Blake is on
extends. Hmmmmm.....